I have been making a little time lately to do some reading: Richard Florida's The Rise of the Creative Class. It's a great discussion of the major change society is currently going through socially and economically, a change as great as the movement from an agrarian society to an industrial society. Creativity is quickly becoming the most lusted-after trait in the American worker today, and managing creative people is both wonderful and challenging. I'm getting a lot of pointers that I think will help me keep good workers at the store, and it also explains a lot of why I feel the way I do about what I do for work. Motivation is less monetary and more intellectual stimulation; flexibility of working hours is vital; place, the location of where people want to work and live, is important; comfort and little perks are important to creative people. Like buying coffee for everyone a couple times a day -- it costs me little but makes them know I appreciate and value them. And who doesn't like a free cuppa, anyway?

Knitting: an entrelac lace stole from Blackberry Ridge. Fun to knit and impressive to look at. Socks, plain knit with fancy yarn from Schaefer. One more seam to sew on Hanne Falkenberg's Pagode. The Helen's Lace garter stitch pie-wedge shawl. And all the other stuff never finished from January: the earflap hat, the fair isle gloves, the purple gansey in Jo Sharp dk tweed, the baby blanket, the crocheted spiral-medallion shawl, the yellow cardigan from Interweave Knits a year or two ago. Then there's all the stuff not even started, some not even designed yet, that needs to be done by some future deadline: the Christmas stocking, the spiral-cable hat, the Cestari cotton-wool pullover. Well, we will see what gets done and what doesn't.